Training by Kara

Kara was a happy character. Barely nineteen before she enlisted, she told us. She didn’t mind telling her about herself. It only encouraged us to tell her our stories. Or at least parts of it. Being away from the commander had opened the floodways to our need to talk, like we had held it all in. Sophia and Clara were asking Kara about the commander while they gave away their desires about him to Kara.

Sophia was most of all interested. Poor girl. She had a reputation of being a slut and a homewrecker in the villages, leaving a clear trail of destroyed relations in her wake. It was the reason she was left abandoned, by her own mother, and by the villagers.

Clara had it in for the commander too. Although she had grown up in a family with parents that loved her and each other very much, her parents had decided to do the good thing and join the war, to protect the child they so loved. They had left her behind with their neighbors, not realizing food shortages would set in. Her parents had no stockpile of their own and were hoping their friendly neighbors would take Clara in. Perhaps they promised the parents they would until they returned, but having their own kids to worry about, they swiftly had booted Clara from their house. By that time everyone else was hoarding their own food, leaving her utterly abandoned by the villagers. When I met her, she was getting fairly ****, talked about going to the leering creep to ask if he had food, hoping her sweet smile would do the rest. I hadn’t heard from her since. Until we met each other again at the council. She was a strong self-confident woman, but it looked like the commander had unknowingly triggered something in her, as she had started to idolize him, even before she had met him.

Emma was the oldest among us. She was polite and very reserved about her opinion. She never tried to discuss something and left the others to deciding. When I had met her searching for food in a house, she cared for me, and even gave me something she had saved for herself. I couldn’t accept it and gave it back. I was touched by her caring nature, but she looked so fragile at times, which made me care about her. But she was shy. Very shy. Especially with men. Very much so with the commander around. Even more than before. But while the rest of us cowered in fear, she simply didn’t react. Her facial expressions remained the same, trying to care for us in her silent way.

Lina was just eighteen. She was a bit chubby so the condition training that was about to start would be difficult. She was extremely smart and very sweet. She too cowered in fear for the commander, but while Clara’s and Sophia’s eyes almost popped out of their eye sockets, she barely reacted. In the first practical training in ‘see, but not seen’ she was clumsy at first, but when she finally got it, she would never forget. As for the commander, she said he was attractive, but a bit too much to her taste. She preferred the more visibly imperfect guys. A capable guy with some acne or scars, a lot less intimidating than the commander, would be just perfect. Not that there were any of those running around these days.

Kara didn’t care in the least if the girls were asking questions about the commander. She had a certain glow in her eyes when she talked about him. Like she was deeply in love with him, she told us he was the most gentle, sweet, caring man she had ever met. I had my doubts about that, remembering how he was looking at us. But then Kara added he was an exceptional leader, able to take care of his entire section, his previous platoon and even people that weren’t part of his group. He was a very protective guy, leaving those under his wing enough freedom to act on their own. He wasn’t capable of hurting those he had under his care. It didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of ****. If somehow he encountered a situation where people were threatened in any way, he could act swiftly, determined and disastrous for those opposing him.

It could be Kara was under his spell for some reason, but she pictured me a whole different view of the man. Was I not almost exactly the same? I was fiercely protective of those I cared about and anyone in my way, well, it didn’t end very well for them. Would he care for us, even protect us if we were under threat? Kara radiated her smile when she responded he will most certainly do. The entire group of orphans was under his protection now. The villagers that had abandoned us were told crystal clear he was not happy with them. He had even given them his **** glare, famous in the entire platoon, for humbling people into pure submission, shame or guilt.

She asked about his relation with Kylie. Kara told Kylie was exactly his equal partner in the relation. She cared for him, she understood him on an almost telepathic level, understood him even better than himself. He listened to her, leaned on her for support. Support she was very happy to give him, sometimes up to the point into forcing him to accept her help, if he was **** to do so. As for caring to other people, she would protect anyone that the commander had promised to protect, but not on her own initiative. The initiative to take care of us came from the commander alone, in an instant.

She told us all that and more while she was running with us, to empty houses to collect construction materials for our cave. It seemed I would not sleep in a tent, but underground. It would take a lot of work, a lot of stuff but in the end it would be worth it.

We ran in group and whenever I noticed anyone was falling behind, I slowed down the tempo for them, keeping us together. Lina had it difficult, but also the youngest one, Mia. Almost seventeen, but far from used to condition training. I tried to talk to her, but she barely responded. She was incredible frightened of the commander, but at the same time felt like he really meant it to care for them. She was afraid to let him down, or to let the group down. She was a bit frail, perhaps that was the reason I took her under my wing as a little sister.

The world was rapidly changing. There was no reason I could change with it, creating my own family of strangers, friends and father-like figures. At least, real caring father types.

We gathered all we could in the houses, from bags to parts of furniture. Food was nowhere to be found, but an empty house was almost stripped entirely, up to the pipes of the gutters. Methodically, efficient and fast. I thought it odd we would strip a house to live in a cave in the forest, but Kara told me, it was best to live in the forest, hidden. If we would occupy a house, we would be ****. Civilians, soldiers, other deserters, and most of all, the Russians would find us, **** us all and kill us if they wanted, or **** us to be their slaves on their never ending trail of destruction and horror.